


0011101000101001

by Sholio



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Episode Tag, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 19:58:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13395147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sholio/pseuds/Sholio
Summary: Alex introduces Brainiac 5 to an Earth tradition. Coda for 3x10.





	0011101000101001

**Author's Note:**

> When you run 0011101000101001 (what Brainiac 5 wrote on Alex's cast in 3x10) through a binary-to-text converter you get :). WHAT A RIDICULOUS SWEET DORK.

"The healing process of your tibia should be well underway," Brainiac 5 said, unscrewing the clamps holding the device over Alex's casted leg with total obliviousness to her occasional squirms and grimaces as his firm grip on her leg put pressure on the injured area. "It will heal in a fraction of the normal time for someone of your species and size -- _do_ hold still, you wouldn't want your bone to heal misaligned, would you?"

"If I'm moving," she said between her teeth, "it's because it's hard to hold still when someone keeps _twisting_ your _broken leg."_

"You can't simply control the pain you feel?" he asked, genuinely sounding surprised.

"No. No, I can't."

"Oh. Hmm. How inconvenient." 

"Yes," Alex said tightly, "isn't it?"

"I've been told," Brainiac 5 went on matter-of-factly as he undid the next clamp, "that I have a poor bedside manner."

"No, really? Who told you that?"

"Mon-El. Imra. Quite a number of people, to be honest." The last clamp came loose and he lifted the device away. "There. You will probably experience some continued discomfort in the initial stages of the healing process, but it should fade shortly."

Alex grimaced. It felt like ants crawling around under her skin. "It'll fade shortly, you say."

"Yes, a day or two at most."

"Mmm. Good to know." 

"Perhaps as much as a week."

" _Thank_ you, that's very comforting." She sat up on the DEO examination bed and cautiously stretched her leg. Brainiac 5 was ignoring her now, folding up the device. She cleared her throat; he continued to ignore her. At last she said, "Brainiac 5?"

He glanced up. "I'm busy. Was there something else?"

It was hard to open up enough to thank people; she'd always had trouble with it. It was especially hard to thank someone who was looking at you like they were in a hurry to catch the bus and you'd just stuck out a foot to trip them. Still, her awareness of how much she owed him made her forge onward. "I just wanted to say -- thanks. For this, but mostly -- for Kara."

He glanced away, back at the device; a blue light flickered on his forehead as he did God only knew what with it. "I was only doing what was necessary to defeat Reign."

"Yes, perhaps, but --"

There was a swift tap at the door, and Imra leaned in. "Brainy! There you are. Mon-El wants you back on the ship to sift through some data. We need to find out if our actions today jeopardized anything in the timeline."

He gave a terse nod and Imra, apparently long since used to him, gave Alex a little wave and left. Alex watched Brainiac 5 as he finished briskly packing up the equipment he'd been using, once again ignoring her as if she wasn't there. Or maybe it was just that he was too busy to bother stopping for social niceties. 

She still wasn't sure how to feel about him. Sure, he was rude, abrupt, and sometimes condescending ... but he'd worked hard to save Kara, and risked his life to stop Reign. And ...

And Kara, too, had been a lonely, socially awkward alien on Earth, once upon a time.

"Hey," Alex called as he started to leave. She picked up a fat black marker from an equipment table beside her bed. "Hey, Brainiac 5?" When he turned around, hands clasped behind his ramrod-straight back, she waggled it at him.

He stared at it blankly, then at her. 

"Earth tradition," Alex explained. "Come here and sign my cast."

He still looked like she was offering him a live snake instead of a laundry marker. "I think perhaps I need to recalibrate my translation matrix. I understand all the words you just said, but not in that order."

"It's a thing we do on Earth, in this time period." Alex waved the marker at him. "When someone breaks a leg, you're supposed to write a message on their cast. For good luck."

"Luck is a superstition that typically takes the place of scientific thinking in insufficiently advanced --"

"Brainiac 5," Alex said, "get over here and sign my cast."

A brief pause, then, "Yes, ma'am." She had to suppress a smile as he knelt beside the bed and took the marker that she gave him. He turned it over curiously in his fingers, tilted it, stared at it, and, after a moment, pointed it at the cast.

"No, no. It's -- you take the cap off." Alex took it back and popped off the cap before handing it back to him. "See? You write with this end."

"Ah." He touched the tip to his finger and examined the black mark. "How fascinatingly primitive." He started to bring the marker down to her leg, then stopped. Uncertainty crept into his brusquely self-assured attitude, making her wonder how much of his abruptness was actually a cover for not quite understanding the 21st-century world in which he had awakened to find himself. "And it is traditional to write -- what?"

"Whatever you like. 'Get well soon.' Your name. That kind of thing." She shrugged. "It's a thing that friends do for one another."

He looked up sharply, face completely expressionless while his wide, dark eyes flicked from one part of her face to another. "Friends?"

"You saved my sister. I don't care what planet you're from, or what century. That makes you a friend to me."

Brainiac 5 ducked his head quickly, turning his face down to stare at her cast, and was perfectly still for another moment before he began to write, a rapid-fire line of text scrolling across the white surface.

Alex tilted her head, trying to see past his shock of white hair. "001110 -- wait, what is this?"

Brainiac 5 finished and neatly capped the marker. He rose in a swift, graceful movement and, as he handed it back to her, he flashed her a smile, so unexpected in its abrupt warmth that she was startled into smiling back. "It's a traditional greeting in your time period, from what I understand." He tilted his head, and his lips quirked in another slight smile. "For luck." And with that, he turned away.

"A traditional -- wait, _what?_ Traditional for nerds maybe! Hey, come back here and explain!"

But he was gone, striding after Imra.

Alex shook her head. She laid the marker back on the bedside table and reached for her crutches. _Traditional greeting, my ass._

Well, at least she couldn't wait to show it to Kara.


End file.
